"Tell us, Pamela," Henry said, his deep baritone cutting through the thick silence. "Why exactly do you suspect Cara has any involvement in this?"

Cara let out a sharp scoff, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I would love an answer to that as well. Why on earth would you make up such a ridiculous story?"

Pamela held Cara’s icy glare for a beat, then turned fully to her father. "Last night, right after the welcome dinner ended, I caught Cara talking to someone. When I asked her who it was, she panicked and completely refused to say."

The room fell dead quiet. The executives leaned forward, clearly waiting for a dramatic climax. But Pamela went silent, letting the implication hang in the air.

"That’s it?" Margaret asked, throwing her hands up. "That is your entire grand accusation?"

Pamela nodded slowly, a cold certainty in her eyes. "Cara needs to answer the question, Mother, because not even two minutes after I confronted her, I saw Christian leaving."

Cara swallowed hard, her fingers tightly crushing the linen napkin in her lap. "What? What are you even talking about?" she stammered, her voice rising an octave. "I don’t even know who Christian is!"

Roxanne let out a low, bitter scoff. "Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath.

Beside her, Richard’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he locked his gaze onto Cara.

Even Margaret’s absolute confidence seemed to waver. Her brow furrowed as a shadow of doubt finally crept into her expression. "Cara, did you actually speak to that man last night?" she asked, her voice laced with a rare hint of confusion.

Cara shook her head frantically, turning a desperate look toward the matriarch. "Of course not, Margaret! I don’t even know what the man looks like. Besides, what could I possibly stand to gain from doing something so vile? I love Richard. I would never dream of hurting him."

Pamela rolled her eyes so hard it was a physical insult.

"Stop stalling and tell the damn truth," Richard snapped, his patience entirely gone. The sheer force of his voice made Cara flinch. "What exactly did you say to Christian?"

"I don’t know anything about this, Richard!" Cara cried, her voice cracking with indignation. "Pamela is just desperately looking for a way to ruin my reputation in front of everyone here. She is accusing me falsely, and it’s completely malicious."

Roxanne shifted slightly in her leather chair, watching Cara’s chest heave. She shook her head. Cara was definitely hiding something; the tells were all over her stiff posture.

Margaret scanned the room, desperate to restore order and protect her favorite choice for a daughter-in-law. "I believe her," she declared, her tone loud and definitive.

"You know better than to play your cards so early, Maggie," Henry warned quietly, his low tone slicing through his wife’s bravado. "If it turns out you are wrong, you will lose all credibility with this room. And that is the absolute last thing you want."

"And why on earth would Cara lie to me, Henry?" Margaret countered sharply. "She has absolutely no motive. I trust her implicitly. If she says she doesn’t know him, then that is the end of the matter."

Pamela looked at her mother, a look of profound pity washing over her face. "Oh, Mother," she sighed, shaking her head. "You are about to be proven so wrong. I just hope you are fully prepared for the fallout of this little performance, because Christian is going to walk through that door at any second, and he will gladly tell this room the truth."

"Let him come! I’ll be waiting right here!" Cara shouted back, her voice ringing with a desperate confidence.

But as she spoke, Roxanne’s eyes dropped to the table. Cara’s left hand was trembling against the dark wood.

"Are you absolutely sure you want that, Cara?" Pamela asked, tilting her head with a cruel little smile.

Cara swallowed hard, her throat bobbing as she gave a stiff nod. "I am entirely ready."

A ghost of a smile touched Roxanne’s lips. She watched as Cara awkwardly adjusted herself in her seat, her movements rigid. Cara reached for her crystal glass, but her fingers shook so badly that the water sloshed against the rim as she took a panicked sip.

Pamela darted a glance at Roxanne, signaling that she had noticed the trembling too, but Roxanne looked away, keeping her emotions locked down.

"We need to accelerate this process," one of the lead board members interjected, tapping frantically on his tablet. "We need to get to the absolute root of this leak immediately. I just received an urgent notification that Sophia Adams has officially placed a hold on her one-billion-dollar investment."

A heavy murmur of panic rippled through the executives, but before the anxiety could erupt, the door clicked open. A security guard stepped into the room, bowing his head slightly.

"Pardon the interruption," the guard said, his voice echoing in the tense space. "But a Mr. Westbrook is outside. He says he was invited to this meeting."

"Let him in immediately," Margaret commanded before anyone else could speak.

Roxanne’s heart instantly began hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs as the guard disappeared. A cold dread settled deep in her stomach. She had absolutely no idea what Christian’s next move would be. Would he seize this opportunity to finally destroy what was left of her reputation?

As the dark thoughts swirled in her mind, she suddenly felt a radiating warmth envelop her hand. She looked down. Richard had locked his fingers tightly through hers beneath the edge of the table.

She raised her eyes to his, and he gave her a nod. The certainty in his gaze anchored her, melting the panic away.

"This is finally going to be resolved," Nicholas muttered, leaning back with an expectant smile. "I can’t wait."

Richard tore his eyes from Roxanne and swept his gaze across the panicked faces of the board members. "We are not losing a single investment over this. Legal team, I need you to ensure that Christian Westbrook does not walk out of this room with a single shred of his confidence intact. I want you to completely dismantle him until he crawls out of this villa with his tail between his legs."

Henry nodded firmly, his sharp eyes shifting toward the head of the legal team. "I require only one thing from the attorneys in this room," he stated, his voice quiet. "I want every falsehood challenged, every inconsistency exposed. By the time he leaves this room, there should be no doubt about Richard’s credibility."

The legal team nodded in unison, immediately leaning into each other and whispering fiercely as they prepped their strategies.

Every single eye in the boardroom locked onto the entrance, the air thin and suffocating. Then, the door swung wide, and Christian stepped into the room. He paused on the threshold, a smug smirk playing on his lips as he scanned the room until his eyes finally landed on Roxanne.

He adjusted his jacket and took a confident stride forward. "I can only assume this urgent invitation is so you can all apologize to me for the inconvenience you’ve caused," he said, his voice dripping with condescension. "And, of course, to allow me to leave this place with my wife."

No one uttered a word. A wall of silent hostility met him as every eye at the table pinned him to the floor.